The new factory is slated to build the Model Y crossover and the Cybertruck.

Elon Musk’s recent clashes with officials in Alameda County, home of Tesla’s Fremont factory, may have given him a heightened sense of urgency to find Tesla’s next US factory. On Friday, several news outlets reported that Tesla was narrowing in on a new location to build the Model Y crossover and Tesla’s forthcoming Cybertruck.

The reports started with Electrek, a pro-Tesla site whose co-founder Fred Lambert has good connections inside the company. Just before 3pm Eastern time, Lambert reported that Tesla had settled on Austin, Texas as the site of its next factory.

“We are told that the decision for the site is not set in stone since Tesla was apparently given a few options in the greater Austin area,” Lambert wrote. “But Musk is said to want to start construction extremely soon and aims to have Model Y vehicles coming out of the plant by the end of the year.”

That would be a remarkably short amount of time for any car company to build a new factory from scratch. Last year, it took Tesla almost a year to build its Shanghai factory—and that was considered unusually fast.

The new factory could easily cost billions of dollars. Tesla is currently building a factory near Berlin that is estimated to cost more than $4 billion. But with $8 billion in the bank at the end of the last quarter, Tesla shouldn’t have too much trouble financing the project.

Lambert noted that Tesla has some existing connections to the Austin area. Some of the chip engineers on the Autopilot team were recruited from AMD’s Austin offices, and so Tesla has a small office there.

Cars: Tulsa in the running?

Hours after Electrek’s story ran, three news organizations—TechCrunch, CNBC, and the Associated Press—all published stories stating that Tesla was still considering Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“A final decision has not been made, but Austin and Tulsa are among the finalists,” Techcrunch’s Kirsten Korosec writes, citing “multiple sources.”

Elon Musk has previously said that Tesla’s “Cybertruck gigafactory” would be in the central United States and that a location would be chosen within three months of Tesla’s late April earnings call, Korosec noted.

Lambert accused Tesla of feeding these stories to rival news organizations. I don’t know if he’s right, but it’s not hard to imagine why Tesla would want to avoid tipping its hand. The threat to pick another location would give Tesla leverage in negotiations with Texas and Austin officials. We’ve asked Tesla for comment on the conflicting reports and will update this story if the company responds.

Both Texas and Oklahoma have right-to-work laws that allow employees to opt out of paying union dues. These laws could help Tesla discourage workers in its new factory from forming a union. California’s laws are more friendly to union organizing.

Cars: Musk seems to be gravitating toward Texas

One reason I suspect that Tesla will ultimately locate its next factory in Texas is that Musk already has substantial ties to the state. Musk’s other company, SpaceX, has at least two facilities in Texas. The company is building Starships at a fast-growing facility near Boca Chica, near the southernmost point in Texas. SpaceX also has a rocket testing facility in McGregor, Texas, about halfway between Austin and Dallas.

Musk recently vowed to move Tesla out of California after county officials tried to delay re-opening of Tesla’s Fremont factory.

“This is the final straw,” Musk tweeted on May 9. “Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately.” A few days later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he had spoken to Musk about moving Tesla to Texas.

Earlier in May, Musk tweeted about selling his physical possessions, including a California home that formerly belonged to actor Gene Wilder.

So building a Texas car factory could be part of a broader shift in Musk’s life—from spending most of his time in California to spending most of his time in the Lone Star State. Musk has spent the last 15 years shuttling back and forth between SpaceX offices in Los Angeles and Tesla’s facilities in the Bay Area in his private jet. Going back and forth between SpaceX’s South Texas operation and a new Tesla headquarters in the Austin area wouldn’t be such a big change in his routine.

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